Gambia: Daily Observer Also

Rumours are rife that crackdown is taking place at the daily observer. It is not clear whether this has any connection with the flight of the former Managing Director, Pa Malick Faye. The Editor-in-Chief is reported to be under detention. Investigation is ongoing.

Many young journalists are being accused of tarnishing the image of the Government in order to seek for asylum abroad in search of greener pastures.

Foroyaa is following the lives of many journalists who have left the country and would give a special report on their realities. Many of them are undergoing many difficulties in Dakar without acquiring refugee status.

The issue of seeking for asylum is not only for journalists. The young people in most African countries are suffering the brunt of the economic hardships in those countries. Hence they are on the move. Supporters and opponents of governments are required to meet certain criteria to be able to stay in foreign countries. During the Sierra Leonean and Liberian conflict many people in our sub region used to claim to be from such countries so that no one would deport them back to war zones.

Suffice it to say, many of these asylum seekers are not real dissidents who threaten the security of nations. They are feigning dissidents who are really economic refugees.

Many governments in the West are already aware of this but maintain the standards to acquire refugee status so as to control migration.

In our view there are real political dissidents who have open motives to remove the Government from office and feigning dissidents who may even be praise singers of the ruling party but would disguise to be its opponents just for economic motives.

There is need to distinguish fiction from facts and give importance only to serious security threats. We will try to find out whether the Daily Observer is indeed under siege.

AllAfrica publishes around 2,000 reports a day from more than 130 news organizations and over 200 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 2000 news and information items daily from over 130 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington DC.